Future Shock

December 7, 1986

Howard Means' feature piece about Orlando in the year 2001 (Florida magazine, Nov. 2) brought up a serious dilemma facing Central Florida in years ahead.

Since 1965, the beginning of the Disney boom, literally thousands upon thousands of prime forest acreage have been forever marred by developers as well as speculators, building and paving over this once quaint citrus growing area. If neither we nor Tallahassee listen to the crisis that is being formed in the region, the unthinkable might actually occur. An unending vacuum of fewer and fewer tourist dollars and a continuously dwindling supply of jobs will take hold, creating the ultimate economic disaster for the Central Florida of the future.